On Friday, February 25, 2011, I divided the Denton High School chess club students into four teams of three students for two games of team chess. Here’s some more information on how to implement team chess, which I first learned about at Jim Liptrap’s Klein Chess Camp (where it had previously been introduced by Brownsville chess coach J.J. Guajardo). Summary: A two- to three-person student team consults at their analysis board. Then one
representative goes to an official board to make the team's move. Then the opposing team (also made up of 2-3 players) sees the move on the official board, and returns to their own analysis board to formulate a response which is then played on the official board. Moves continue in this fashion. The activity promotes cooperation, as students analyze chess moves together as a team with assigned roles. The roles will rotate each time the team game is resumed. Notation is necessary, as usually a team game will take more than one period to finish. So the record of the game allows students to recreate the game the next time they meet.